Ode to Ouds – We are still harping on about music. So we have now switched from modal jazz to the Palestinian Arab oud player Samer Totah’s album called Ghofran. This was one of several CDs given as a gift to the old Carer by the poet Mahmoud Hashhash in Ramallah. She had only asked for recommendations of what she could buy; but this gracious gesture was symptomatic of the open generosity of all Arab people she encountered in Ramallah. (Someone also gave her a bottle of Ramallah-made arak, which was highly appreciated back in the UK, but didn’t last long – is this company still in business?) Anyone who likes jazz will have ears to hear these Arabic ouds, she says. One of her favourite mediaeval drawings is a pair of oud players, one a Muslim Arab, the other a European Christian, part of a folio from the 13th century Cantigas de Santa Maria, by Alfonso X, ‘The Wise’. It is but one illustration, she says, of the centuries-long intercultural exchange between Arabs and Europeans. So whoever peddles the idea of ‘clash of civilisations’ is guilty of shameful and malicious ignorance. Since I am a proud descendent of the Egyptian Mau, or perhaps even of the Arabian wild cat, I can testify that European civilisation has its roots in Egypt and the Levant!